Amazed to see my Mazda Tubes arrive today, only 8 days from France!
I have them burning in now but from initial listening think sweeter Lorenz's, just a lovely sound so far. Also, ultra quiet tubes, not a ting, not a rustle. Also, next to the Marconi's I think these are my most beautiful tubes but for a different reason.

Firstly these are the cleanest pins I have seen so far, I think they may be gold plated as there was no corrosion and they were nice and shiny. I just cleaned them with alcohol thats all!

Second reason is that these have large cut-outs in the metal cylinder inside the tube so one can actually see very clearly the grid inside. Also the getter flash is very little so it is easy to see the shiny mica top plate and the D Getter (D getter means these are early tubes, probably no later than mid 1950's.

I have them paired with the Mil-spec Sylvania's and it is a lovely pairing. Those who ordered the Cifte's from this seller expect pretty much the same in terms of sound as both these brands are made side by side in the Mazda Suresness factory in France.

I have taken some pictures, a few more than normal as hopefully I have captured the details so you can see a bit of what is inside these types of tubes!
First up is a shot of the tubes fresh out of the rather attractive boxes (BTW, in case your wondering my desk top is an image sent by a friend of mine who is a Kondo Audio Note dealer and this shows the full Kondo Audio Note set up in his showroom including the new power amp and speakers!)

Check those pins out, I swear, I had not even cleaned them with alcohol when I took this shot, nicely blued at the top of the pins to show they have gone through extra check at the factory so I am guessing these tubes are high grade ones.

Next up a nice shot of the "D" Getter, though the Mica top looks dull it is in fact shiny.

Lastly in the amp with the Sylvania's enjoying some burn in.. But look closely at the one on the far right, this is the cut out I was on about and you can see clearly the grid inside the tube! I will fiddle around a post a close up of that!Edited by ianmedium - 7/24/13 at 5:04pm

Boringer, that is the seller I got mine from, if you notice he is away until the end of the month so has probably suspended anyone being able to order until then. There were plenty left before he closed the store for his holiday so my advice is to send him a message saying what you want and then when he gets back he will be able to get in touch with you.

Very impressed with the tubes he sent me, the best condition of any NOS tube so far!

I have had a few chats with him now and told him about our amp so he is looking out for more tubes of our type from his suppliers!

i posted a picture of my tubes with the german forces eagle on the back. front printing is 1u4 and as mentioned before, the left picture handwritten 1u4 is identical on the cardboxes my tubes were delivered in.

edit:

i assume the mil spec ones are labeled 1u4, because

Bundeswehr - German Forces - NATO - English Language - US Army Standards